Haitians Take Vital Last Step Brothers Are Finally Interviewed By Ins

March 3, 1992|By LISA OCKER, Staff Writer

MIAMI -- Their car broke down, and they had to take a train for the first time ever without an interpreter, making them two hours late for an appointment that would determine the course of their lives.

But Monday morning`s headaches were nothing compared to what the two young brothers from Haiti had endured to get to that point.

Yvener Nonombre, 18, buttoned the top button of his shirt and swallowed; it was time to see the immigration officer who would decide whether he and his brother would be entitled to political asylum in the United States.

The Nonombres were the first Haitians, of the more than 16,000 who have fled their country since a Sept. 30 military coup, to reach that step in their quest for political asylum.

Yvener and Fritznel Nonombre were among the first to flee, leaving in late October from their home in La Gonave. They spent 19 days in a rickety sailboat before being picked up by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and taken to a makeshift refugee camp at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

There, they were able to convince an immigration officer that they had a ``credible fear of return,`` in the words of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Passing that initial test meant they would be brought to the United States to apply for asylum and, more importantly, that they would have rights they would not have in overseas interviews, such as the right to an attorney and to appeal a negative ruling.

The standard for granting asylum used by immigration officers in the United States is more stringent than that applied in interviews conducted on Coast Guard cutters and at the refugee camp. To pass the test in the United States, refugees must demonstrate a ``well-founded fear of persecution`` if returned to Haiti.

The INS is reluctant to explain the different standards applied in determining political asylum claims.

``It`s not very well-defined,`` said the Nonombres` attorney, Nathaniel Burke, ``so we`re going to be very curious to see how they do here.``

The Nonombres are among 5,706 approved to apply for political asylum in the United States and 3,560 already brought here from the Navy base.

Affidavits and interviews of about 250 of those Haitians show ``an overwhelming pattern of abuse in Haiti, of political persecution, arrests, torture, beatings, political executions,`` said Burke, who works for the U.S. Catholic Conference, a volunteer agency contracted to resettle the refugees.

``The perpetrators are the military regime that ousted President (Jean- Bertrand) Aristide. The victims are overwhelmingly young men who supported Aristide.``

Burke declined to disclose details of what led the Nonombres to leave Haiti and their reasons for thinking their lives would be threatened if they returned.

The Nonombres live with relatives in West Palm Beach, have enrolled in school, received work authorizations and are looking for jobs.

After their hearings, conducted behind closed doors with Burke, an interpreter and an immigration officer, the Nonombres seemed to relax slightly.

``I`m very happy because I am finished with my interview,`` Fritznel Nonombre, 17, said through an interpreter as his brother anxiously pushed the button for the elevator down from the 14th-floor location of the Refugee Asylum and Parole Office.

``I`m very happy,`` Yvener Nonombre said when asked the same question.

It will take at least two months before the Nonombres know the outcome of their hearings, after the immigration officer`s opinion is reviewed by the State Department and the matter returns to the local asylum office for a final determination.